The subject matter herein relates generally to terminal crimping machines for crimping electrical terminals to a wire.
Terminal crimping machines have long been used in the connector industry to effect high-speed mass termination of various cables. It is common practice for the terminal crimping machine to have an interchangeable tooling assembly called an applicator. In general, such terminal crimping machines are referred to as a terminator or press, however other types of terminal crimping machines may similarly be used, such as a lead maker, a bench machine, or a hand crimping tool. The terminal crimping machines include crimp tooling, such as an anvil and a movable ram that is moved relative to the anvil during a crimping stroke to crimp a terminal or connector to an end of a wire. The wire is typically held by a wire clamp during the crimping operation.
However, these known terminal crimping machines are not without disadvantages. For instance, during crimping a phenomenon known as extrusion of the wire may occur when the terminal is compressed around the wire. Such extrusion is problematic when using aluminum wires as a high force is need to crimp the terminal to the aluminum wire. When extrusion occurs, the wire is lengthened longitudinally. Such lengthening causes the wire to bend or kink as the wire is fixed in the terminal and at the wire clamp. The bending or kinking can damage the wire, such as by severing one or more strands of the wire. The wire needs to be reworked, such as by manually straightening the wire after the crimping process is complete.
A need remains for a terminal crimping machine that does not damage the wire during the crimping process.